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David Marie
United States
Cleveland
Tennessee
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GOSU Tournament Rules
Intro:
GOSU is a 2-4 player card game from Moonster and Asmodee. It’s a hand management game that plays in about 30 or so minutes. In GOSU you are trying to build the biggest army of goblins and prepare for a series of big battles. The game is basically a deck of cards, but these cards are beautifully illustrated representations of 5 different goblin colors and clans.
Ancient Gobans
Alpha Goblins
Dark Goblins
Meka Goblins
Fire Goblins
Each of the goblin clans have a different specialty even though certain abilities do overlap; so for instance an Ancient Goban may help you draw more cards or give you an extra turn. If you play a Fire Goblin it may let you destroy another goblin on the table. You’ll put any number of goblin clans in your army, so you can specialize in one or two colors or try and get as many as you can fit in your area.
Components:
In the box are one hundred cards and some nice looking cardboard tokens. The artwork on the cards is easily the best feature of the games components. The goblins are incredibly detailed and they have a charismatic quality that I haven’t seen in many board games. When I look at these cards I’m reminded of some of my favorite comic book art which can really express a characters attitude with a facial expression or a cool pose. There are three types of goblins within each of the unique clans
Types of goblins:
Bakutos – (level 1) these are your foot soldiers, you’ll get (25) twenty five unique Bakutos with each one having a double for a total of (50) fifty Bakutos.
Heroes – (level 2) these can also be referred to as veterans and you’ll get (35) thirty five of them all unique.
Ozekis – (level 3) Ozekis are your generals. You’ll only get (15) fifteen of these so they’re pretty rare.
Types of tokens:
Activation tokens – you’ll get (8) eight of these (two for each player), you trade these in to draw cards or place them on cards to activate certain abilities.
Advantage token – you only get one of these and it can give you benefits when you are in control of it and it also break ties when scoring (you acquire it through certain actions).
Victory tokens – you get (9) nine of these, you win these at the end of a round if your goblin army is the strongest.
One other thing that should be mentioned is the rulebook. It is a full color small booklet that is written with humor and wit that is sprinkled with some great art work. The rules are one of the many touches that set this game above and beyond more mundane productions.
Quick points:
- the box has flair
- superb art on the cards
- neat looking tokens
- rule book is exceptional
Set up:
To play the GOSU tournament variant you take (2) two matching activation tokens and decide who starts out with the advantage token. You can roll dice or play rock paper scissors but the token will usually change hands a few times during a game. Next you shuffle all those beautiful cards and deal 7 to each player. You then start a card draft by choosing (2) two of the cards in hand and passing the remaining (5) five clockwise. When you receive the five cards your neighbor passed to you choose and take one and pass the remaining (4) four. This will continue until all the cards have been chosen and everyone has (7) seven cards. This draft fixes the original games problem of drawing a bum hand and getting steam rolled by the other player.
Quick points:
- using the draft is the best way to play (seriously, do it)
- set up is a snap
- putting the game away is equally snappy
Gameplay:
The point of GOSU is to have a bigger goblin army than your opponent. You build your goblin army by laying cards down in three levels or rows. Each level can hold (5) five goblins and is numbered starting from the bottom. So at the bottom is level one, the middle is level two and the top is level three. You place goblins from left to right on these rows starting on level one.
3. Only Ozekis can be placed on level three (can never have more Ozekis than Heroes)
2. Only Heroes can be placed on level two (can never have more heroes than Bakutos)
1. Only Bakutos can be placed on level one (can only have five)
*can only play an Ozeki if you have a Hero and a Bakuto of the same clan
*can only play a Hero if you have a Bakuto of the same clan
*Heroes and Ozekis do not need to be directly on top of goblin of same clan, but goblin of same clan must be present in level one to play a Hero or levels one and two to play an Ozeki.
The first goblin you lay down is going to be a Bakuto and it is free to place. On your second turn you can now place a Hero of the same clan as your Bakuto in level two or lay another Bakuto right next to it of the same clan at no cost. The other option is to lay a Bakuto of a different clan. To do that you must pay a cost of two discarded cards from your hand. It may not sound like much but in GOSU there is no phase were you automatically draw cards, you must trade your activation tokens to draw cards or activate a specific goblin’s power by placing a token on it. Only a few goblins have card drawing abilities so you’ll have to use your cards wisely.
There is text on every card so you’ll have to make sure you read each one very carefully as your learning the game because some of the card text takes effect as soon as that goblin is played. For instance some cards let you destroy an opponent’s goblin as soon as you put it on the table and sometimes you’ll have to spend an activation token to use a goblin’s ability on a later turn. There is even an ability that some goblins have that let you “mutate” that card into another card in hand or from the discard pile for a discard cost listed on the left side of the card.
You only take one action per turn then your opponents take theirs. You keep playing until everyone passes on their turn. In the rulebook you are able to keep playing indefinitely when another player(s) passes. In the tournament variant any remaining player(s) can only make up to ten moves after one player has passed then the round is over and you count up the card values. This is called a “great battle”.
Ozekis = 5 points
Heroes = 3 points
Bakutos = 2 points
Winner gets a victory token and then you move on to the next round. This may be the hardest thing to get gamers to understand at first. You don’t reset the play area and you don’t draw new cards. It’s not as scary as it sounds though because you get your activation tokens back so they can get you some cards if you’re in desperate need. At first you may use all your cards and have nothing left at the end of a round but eventually you’ll develop a strategy and save good cards for when you really need them.
Quick points:
- first goblin clan is free to play
- next one costs (2) two cards
- you lay goblins five slots across and three levels up for a total of fifteen slots
- text on cards may let you: heal, trap, kill, draw cards (annoy your opponent)
End of game:
Normally the game ends once someone collects three victory tokens but there are goblins in the deck that have victory conditions on them and a round or even a game can end when those conditions are met. Your first game may take a while with everyone reading the effects and learning how the cards work together but it gets shorter over time.
Quick points:
- any ties are broken with the advantage token
- games take f-o-r-e-v-e-r unless tournament variant is used
- GOSU will probably take a bit longer than an average game of say, Dominion or 7 Wonders.
Final thoughts:
One of my first games of GOSU lasted two and a half hours and when we finally finished I never wanted to play it again. That is until I found the tournament rules. I went ahead and tried it with my gaming group armed with the new variant and lo and behold this was a totally different experience. The draft and the ten move limit completely fixed the game for me. I’m not saying it’s perfect but we had a great time playing it and I was surprised at how a couple of tweaks could change how I felt about a game.
Some hand management games force you to make the tough decisions but GOSU will burn your brain at times when your trying to figure out what goblins to play and what goblins to discard. You have to throw away great cards all the time and you will experience remorse when you toss that goblin you had been saving for the cool text effect to play a goblin that will give you more points in a great battle.
GOSU is a highly tactical card game that can run a touch long and can be quite vicious at times. It does reward clever play and those with an analytical mind will do very well. Two players works best, three is fine (how I usually play), four is pushing it. The more players you have, the more downtime you have and with cards being so scarce players with AP can bring this game to a screeching halt.
I really think you should play GOSU with the tournament rules a few times before making a decision about it. It’s the type of game that seems to get better the more you play. What’s the final verdict? I think GOSU is a challenging brain burner that is worth buying for the cool looking goblin cards alone.
Website:http://thecardgamer.com
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Email: thecardgamer2000@gmail.com
Video Review:
http://youtu.be/53E3S2Jlyb0?hd=1
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Jack Timbledum
New Zealand
Auckland
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Great review! Love all the pictures and everything. I haven't tried it yet but apparently there is a team variant that "fixes" 4 player. I have only about 6 games (2 player) under my belt but it definately improves as you get to know the game, especially as you start to understand where the strategy is and what the cards and clans do generally. And I only just clicked that that advantage token is actually a goblin in a test tube or something! Even after 6 games I haven't really touched the surface of the mecha and ancient goblins.
The drafting vastly improves the game, but the first game or two you play with someone you need to have the random draw just so they get a hold of what cards are valuable. I haven't had a too long game yet, but I could see how it could happen, especially if people gear their playing towards drawing cards (at the expense of other strategies, drawing cards is always important in this game)
Super excited for the expansion! Five new clans that can be swapped in and randomised dominion style.
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United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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One of the most informative reviews I've read about GOSU. Great job.
Here are the 2v2 rules variant.
Quote: How to play GOSU in 2v2 !?
To win, a team must score 3 victory points. Victory points are common to the 2 players of the team.
If a team has more victory points than the other, both players of the latter get the bracketed bonuses.
A card which targets a player may also target your ally.
A card which targets an opponent may only target a player from the opposing team.
There are some new actions you may use during your turn (in addition to the standard ones) :
• Spend an Activation Token to make your ally draw a card from the draw pile.
• Spend two Activation Tokens to make your ally draw three cards from the draw pile.
• Play an Activation Token on an allied card to activate its power. The power of the activated card is then resolved as if it was activated by his owner (your ally).
The Great Battle:
During the Great Battle, only the best army of each team will be engaged in the fight! (This means the army with the highest army point value).
In case of a tie, the values of the second armies are compared . If there is still a tie, the team with the Advantage Token wins.
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Jack Timbledum
New Zealand
Auckland
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By the way, a large reason I perhaps haven't had a problem with this game dragging on, is that every game I've played the alpha goblin that gives 2 VPs when winning a battle instead of 1 (if you have 0 to begin with) has come out early on, shortening the game.
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Rodney "Watch It Played" Smith
Canada
Montague
Prince Edward Island
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Great review.
I love this game. My wife who doesnt care for the theme, enjoys and is good at the gameplay.
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Geoff Hall
United Kingdom
Yate
Bristol
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I love Gosu, it's my #2 game from last year (behind Alien Frontiers); however I fully agree that you have to play it with the tournament rules for the game to do well and that it's definitely best with 2 players. It probably helps (from my perspective) that my wife likes the game, perhaps because she has a tendency to kick my arse at it fairly frequently.
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Samo Gosaric
Slovenia
Ljubljana
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These kind of texts amuse me: It's a 1111 characters review in a 9000 character text. At least I guess writing rule synopsis makes you better at remembering them the next time you play.
Review part makes the following points:
1) Author considers the game much improved with tournament rules (draft and turn limit)
2) Gosu is a tactical card game with some brain burning in hand management department, best for analytical minds.
My feedback:
A) On #1.
I haven't experienced problem regarding the unlimited turns and would be interested to know in what kind of situation one can have such a prolonged turn. Does tournament rule allow you to prematurely end your turn so that you limit the opponents options? (Still it's 10 turns). Drafting I haven't tried yet, but will the next game I play, as it has shown that the game where one of the players has bad starting hand (not allowing drawing new cards) are far unbalanced to be fun. So overall I agree the tournament rules are the way to go.
B) On #2.
Agree that Gosu is a highly tactical card game with strong hand management component. The "analytical mind" segment needs a bit of clarification: it's a game of combinatorics, you'll be all the time figuring the combinations of cards you have to give you more cards or other advantages.
C) What I find missing in the review is the overall feel of playing the game, in particularly assessment of interaction level. And maybe some comparison to similar games, if this is "the card game" review.
C1) If I for instance compare the game to CCGs like MtG this game has far more combinatorics going on, but take that and aggressive elements come only secondary in comparison. Hence the game feels much more solitary than confrontational, meaning: you will focus mostly on your plateau, though there are means to block your opponents and take advantage of level III cards. Still when you'll want to block one opponent, you'll probably need another combinatoric scheme too pull it off. I enjoy games with this element, but wish that the interaction would be more prominent than it is. It does create interesting puzzles, like how to destroy your III level card that will make one of the opponents win.
C2) If I compare the game to another "combinatorics" and "solitairish" game of building your own plateau: RFTG, Gosu is far more tactical is not as good in creating narrative as is RFTG (building of space empire). Because of narrative element I feel that RFTG better rewards the lack of interaction than the more interactive Gosu.
D) My conclusion. Where Gosu shines is in "combinatorics" or the "puzzling", the process which takes place in each players head and hence may feel less interactive than old school CCG games. Other thing Gosu excels at is chaos, but together with the first element and the fact the game is highly tactical it may lead to AP and long turns (particularly if one plans on doing zombie mutation and there's half or more cards in discard pile). So it's a nice puzzling chaotic joy, but I probably wouldn't recommend it with more than 2 players. A good game, but becuse of reasons mentioned in c1 and c2 not a great one.
I'll be damned 2500 chars, I guess I have to start writing reviews.
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David Marie
United States
Cleveland
Tennessee
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Thanks for all the positive and negative feedback you guys. I'll learn from it and continue to improve.
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Posted Thu May 12, 2011 11:35 pm
